Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1887-05-14
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thrust her white hand through the
bars Of the prison. and smite her
head, rubbing it back Us though to
push the scalp from the ull,shriek
ing: "My brain! my bctinp' O,
stand off from thatI Why will YOU
go sounding your way amid the
reefs and warning buoys, VII,
there is such Il vast ocean in which
you may voyage, all sail seti
There is one other thing [ shall
say this morning before [ leave
you, whether you want to hear it or
not. Thai is, that consider the
lascivious pictorial literature of the
day as most tremendous for ruin.
Thele is no one who can like good
pictures better than [ do The
quickest and most CONDENSED way
Of impressing the public min is BIZ
picture. What the painter does by
his brush for few favorites the
engraver does by his knife for the
million. What the althor accom-
plishes by his fifty pages the artist
does by a flsh. The bnst part Of
painting that costs ten thousand
dollars you may buy for ten cents.
Fine paintings belong to the arts
tocracy of art. You do we'll to
gather good pictures in your homes.
Spread them before yolr children
alter the tel hour is past and the
evening circle is gathered. Throw
them on the invalid's coach. Strew
them through the rain train to ;heer
the traveller on his journey. TAX
them Oh the wall of the nursery
Gather them in albums. and port
folios. God speed the good pictures
OIL thar way with ministries OF
knowledge and mercy.
But what shall | SAY of thu pros.
titution Of this art to purp ,ses Of
iuiqu5yg These death warrants of
the soul are at every street corner.
They smite the vision of tue young
man with pollution. Many a youag
man buying copy has brought his
eternal discontinue. There may
be enough poison in one b III picture
to poison one soul, and that soul
may poison ten, aud ten fifty, aud
the fifty hundreds, and tue hun.
dreds thousands, until nothing but
the measuring line of eternal ages
can tell the height, aud depth, end
ghastlineSs, and horror of the great
untloing. The work Of death that
the wicked author does in a Whole
book the bad engraver may do on
a half side of a pictorial. Under
the guiss Of pure mirth, the young
man buys one Of these sheets. He
unrolls it before his comrades amid
roars of laughter, but long after
the D lperis gone the result may
! agTnatl0nS or those WHO saw It,
The queen of death holds a banquet
every night, and these periodicals
are the printed invitation. to her
guests. Alas, that the fair brow of
American art should be blotcaed
with this plague spit, and that phi
lanthropiSts, bothering them selves
about smaller evils should lift up
no united aud vehement voice
against this great calamity!
Young man! buy not this moral
strychinine for your soul! Pick not
up this nest of eoiled adders for
your pocket Patronise no news
stand that keeps them! Have your
room bright with good engravings;
but for these outrageous plctorials
have not one wall, not one bureau,
not one pocket. a man is no bet
ter than the pictures he loves to
look at. Ii your eyes are not pure
your heart cannot be. At news.
Stand one Can guess tue CHARACTER
OF Il man by the kind Of pictorial
he purchases. When the devil
fails to get a man to read u bad
book he sometimes succeeds in get
ting him to look at a bad picture.
When satan goes a.fshing he does
not care whether it is long line or
a short line, if he only draws his
victim in. Beware Of lasciyious
pictorials, young man, in the name
of Almighty God l charge you.
II [ have this morning successfully
laid down any principles by which
you may Judge iu regard to books
and newspapers, then l have done
something which L shall not be
ashamed on tue day which shall
try every mans work, OF what sort
it is.
Cherish good books and newspa-
pers. Beware of the bad ones.
One column may save your soul;
one paragraph may ruin it. Benja
min Franklin said that the read
ing Of Cotton Mather's Essay on
Doing Goodn moulded his sntire
! life. Tie assassin Of Lord Russell
declared that he was led into crime
by reading one vivid romance
The consecrated John Angel James
than whom England never pro-
duced a better man, declared in
his old days that he had never yet
got over the evil effects Of having
for fifteen minutes once read bad
book. But need not go so far Off.
| could come near home, and tell
YOU of something that occurred in
my college days. / could tell you
of a comrade who was great-hearc
ed, noble and generous. He was
studying for an honorable profess
SION; but he had an intidel book in
his trunk, and he said to me one